Friday, 13 June 2014

The Ratcliffe Highway Murders (3); John Williams (1784-1811) buried at the crossroads at the junction of Cable Street and Cannon Street Road

This
photograph looks from the railway bridge on Cannon Street Road to the cross
roads where John Williams was buried with the Crown and Dolphin still standing
on the corner and the tower of St Georges’-in-the-East showing above the roof
tops.

On
the 21st December, just a couple of days after the murder of the Williamson’s
and Bridget Harrington at the Kings Arms Tavern, an Irish or possibly Scottish seaman
by the name of John Williams (or perhaps John Murphy) was arrested at the Pear
Tree Inn after information was received from an anonymous source. He had been
seen drinking at the Kings Arms on the night of the murder and there were other
circumstantial details too which linked him to the crimes. He was remanded at
Cold Bath Fields Prison to appear before the Shadwell magistrates to answer questions
on his possible involvement in the murders. On the day of the hearing the
magistrates sat waiting in their packed court room when a messenger appeared
from the prison – Williams had committed suicide, hanging himself in his cell.
The magistrates went ahead and heard the testimony of the other witnesses in
what now appeared to be an open and shut case. Their verdict, hotly disputed to
this day, was that John Williams was solely responsible for the Ratcliffe
Highway Murders.

To
appease public opinion and In lieu of a public execution the Home Secretary Sir
Richard Ryder, accepting the conclusions of the Shadwell Magistrates that John
Williams was solely responsible for the Ratcliffe Highway Murders, ordered that
his body be publically paraded around the streets at the scenes of his crimes.
Once the local residents were satisfied that the monster was indeed dead he was
to be interred at a crossroads with a stake through his heart. The crossroads
chosen were at the junction of Cable Street and Cannon Street Road, close by
the Crown and Dolphin public house.

On
New Years Eve 1811 accompanied by the Thames Police and the Bow Street Mounted
Patrol as well as local constables and watchman John Williams’ body was
arranged on an open cart along with the maul, a chisel and a crowbar that he
had used in committing his crimes and driven slowly through the streets of
Wapping and Shadwell, stopping outside the Marr’s shop at 29 Ratcliffe Highway
and the Kings Arms Tavern. 10,000 spectators lined the route and the normally
unruly east end crowd was unusually subdued. When the procession reached the
crossroads the grave had already been dug. The driver of the cart whipped
Williams’ body three times in an unscripted act of revenge and then it was
removed from the cart and placed on its knees in the open grave. A stake was
placed at the point of his back judged to be above the heart and then driven
through it with a mallet before the earth was piled over the corpse.

In
1902 gas mains were being laid in Cannon Street North and Cable Street. The
labourers digging the trenches uncovered a skeleton with a wooden stake driven
through the ribcage. The labourers adjourned to the Crown and Dolphin while
their bosses debated what to do. They may well have adjourned carrying John Williams’
skull which was undoubtedly exchanged for a few pints when the landlord took an
interest in it. Certainly by the time the authorities arrived to take Williams’
remains away the skeleton was headless and once the mains had been laid, the
road repaved and official interest in the site had waned a skull purportedly
belonging to John Williams’ went on prominent display in the saloon bar.

Thomas
De Quincey described John Williams as "a man of middle stature, slenderly
built, rather thin but wiry, tolerably muscular, and clear of all superfluous
flesh. His hair was of the most extraordinary and vivid color, viz., a bright
yellow, something between an orange and a yellow colour." Even the police agreed
he had a “pleasing countenance” which was sketched post mortem by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Sir Thomas would no doubt have preferred to sketch Williams alive but the
sailor was so impatient to hang himself that the artist had to content himself
with the corpse. The incident was recorded by Miss Croft in her “Recollections
of Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. During an Intimacy of Nearly Thirty Years”:

“Sir
Thomas had an insatiable curiosity as to the countenances of murderers and
persons capable of great crimes. He got permission from the home-office to go
to Cold Bath Fields Prison to make a drawing of the man Williams, who was the
murderer of the Maw family about 1812 or 1813, and also of another family of
the name of Williamson, both in the neighbourhood of Ratcliffe High-way. The
presumption of his guilt was confirm'd by his destroying himself in Prison the
day after he was taken. Sir Thomas brought the drawing to shew me, and laid it
before me without a comment. It instantly struck me that it was Williams, for
the subject was fresh in every one's mind. I never saw a more beautiful head.
The forehead the finest one could see, hair light and curling, the eyes blue
and only half closed ; the mouth singularly handsome, tho' somewhat distorted,
and the nose perfect. I ask'd what became of the science of physiognomy, when
such features could belong to such a monster; for he destroyed not only the
father and mother, and I think a maid servant, but an infant a few weeks old in
its cradle — and all this for the purpose of rifling the till in a little
haberdasher's shop!”